Johnathan Paoli
THE National School Funding Scheme NSFAS has officially called on universities and other tertiary educational institutions to take responsibility for the upfront payment of students’ allowances.
Nsfas Board and Executive Management, led by the Acting Chairperson, Lourens Van Staden, held a press briefing addressing the registration process, payment of allowances and the student accommodation pilot project on Monday and said the scheme was planning on opening offices all over the country.
Currently, NSFAS only has one office, located in Cape Town and Van Staden said plans are in place to have NSFAS offices available to students and applicants in all provinces.
Van Staden said the scheme has deployed servicing administrators to all institutions to assist students for the past two weeks and aims to alleviate the tensions and contribute to a harmonious academic environment for all the institutions.
“It is through this intervention that we will continue to ensure the unmediated and seamless interaction between NSFAS and all its beneficiaries. As a scheme, we acknowledge that this transition required a significant increase in NSFAS financial resources, effective and efficient information and communication technologies and capable personnel to drive this transition phase,” he said.
The chairperson said that this initiative will propel NSFAS to be agile in handling a large number of student applications, process them timeously and give feedback to all applicants without any delays.
NSFAS funding has increased from R21.4 million in 1991, when it was introduced, to almost R50 billion now to broaden access to post school education and training.
For the 2024 academic year, NSFAS disbursed R2.8 billion to universities in January 2024 to cover one month of student accommodation and half of the book allowance, with an additional two months’ worth of allowances being provided to assist institutions with registered medical students whose academic year began in January 2024.
Further upfront payments were made in February to cover remaining allowances, including the second half of the book allowance, accommodation for March 2024, transport for February and March, meal allowances for February and March, and personal care allowances for February and March.
For TVET Colleges, NSFAS disbursed over R580 million for tuition fees in January 2024 and an additional R1 billion for student allowances for the first three months of 2024, with TVET Colleges being urged to promptly load their registration information to facilitate payments on the direct payment platform.
NSFAS confirmed that allowances will be distributed using the direct payment method, utilising the same partners assigned to respective institutions in the previous year. Students must therefore ensure they complete the on-boarding process for NSFAS allowances.
Due to challenges experienced at the start of the academic year, universities were asked to pay allowances for both February and March. Direct payments for the 2024 academic year will commence in April 2024, NSFAS said.
NSFAS emphasised the importance of institutions uploading student registration data promptly to prevent delays in fund distribution, and said that students may be provisionally funded, however, they only begin receiving allowances when their institution uploads their registration data with NSFAS.
“Any discrepancies in registration data may result in temporary blockage of transactions, with affected students receiving guidance on account reactivation via email and SMS notifications. This includes cases where NSFAS detects students who are registered at multiple institutions,” the funding scheme said.
In conclusion, Nsfas executives advised institutions to contact the NSFAS Servicing Administrator for further assistance.
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